-First continuous quarterly labour survey finds

THE first-ever local continuous quarterly Labour Force Survey (LFS) has recorded a marginal decrease in the unemployment level, which moved from 12.5 per cent in 2012 to 12.0 per cent in the third quarter of 2017.

The LFS is one of the main tools used to track labour market dynamics such as unemployment, job creation, and job destruction, said officials who spoke at the launch of the first bulletin of the survey at the Marriott Hotel on Thursday.
Deputy Chief Statistician of the Bureau of Statistics, Ian Manifold, said the report summarises the main findings and indicators from the first quarter of the Guyana LFS which was the third quarter of 2017 (July to September).

“Whenever possible, it also compares them with the indicators referring to the 2012 Census and published in the related compendia,” said Manifold.
He said the LFS is meant to provide a quick and complete snapshot of the labour market for policy makers within the public and private sectors, as well as general stakeholders.
The bulletin was prepared by Diego Rei, Employment and Labour Market Specialist International Labour Organisation (ILO) Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean, in collaboration with Manifold and the Bureau. It benefitted from technical support and inputs from Diether Wolfgang Beuermann Mendoza, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Yves Perardel, ILO Statistics Department, and Ramiro Flores Cruz, Sistemas Integrales.
It includes approximately 4,000 households every quarter, resulting in a total of about 15,000 individuals out of which about 11,000 are 15 years old or above.

“LFS is one of the main tools used to track labour market dynamics such as unemployment, job creation, and job destruction. However, up to July 2017, no such survey was regularly conducted in Guyana. This reality hindered the possibility of having up-to-date, objective information to inform evidence-based policy decisions,” said the deputy chief statistician.

In the past, the labour force would be captured in the general census that would usually happen within a span of 10 years or more, he explained, noting that now they would have continuous collection of data that would provide proper information on the labour force.
He went on to say that Guyana joins countries like Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad which are some of the few CARICOM countries that have implemented the survey.
With the oil and gas industry in the making, Manifold believes that the implementation of the survey locally is timely and will provide market planning indicators for investors to create strategic plans.

According to the bulletin, the available data from the survey shows a situation substantially similar to that outlined by the 2012 Census.
The main differences which emerged from a comparison of the two sources include the situation of women who, despite showing a sizeable disadvantage in the labour market, appear to be more engaged in the labour force and be less likely to be unemployed; the substantial drop in the number of workers engaged in the mining and quarrying sector; and the reduction in the youth unemployment rate.

WOMEN OUTNUMBER MEN
The LFS revealed that women slightly outnumbered men within the working age population 15 years old and above, with a ratio of 281,966 women against 268,864 men.
“Such proportion is more than reversed if one looks at the labour force (the percentage of working age population actively engaged in the labour market) where men represent 60.1 per cent of the total,” the report said.

In the third quarter of 2017, the total population aged 15 and above residing in Guyana was 550,831 persons; the majority is based in urban areas, totaling 72.3 per cent.
The labour force participation rate for all persons aged 15 and above was 56 per cent, roughly equal to the corresponding 2012 value of 55.7 per cent.
With respect to 2012, data indicated an increase in the participation rate of women from 34.6 to 43.6 per cent and a decrease in the participation rate of men from 77.5 to 68.9 per cent.

The urban labour force represented the majority of the total actively engaged persons which is 69.6 per cent of the total labour force.
The employment-to-population ratio of persons aged 15 and above was 49.2 per cent, with the rate being substantially higher for men than for women 62.1 per cent against 36.9 per cent.

In addition to the measure of the time-related underemployment, the LFS allowed for the calculation of a number of indicators referring to the concept of labour underutilisation as spelled out within the resolution concerning the statistics of work, employment, and labour.
The report stated that once those indicators are taken into account, the degree of labour underutilisation appears somewhat higher than what the simple time-related underemployment would indicate.

It also recorded that age distribution explains the low rate of labour force participation, noting that if at least 20 per cent of the population over 15 years of age is aged 15-24, there is a substantial share of individuals who are more likely to be still attending educational institutions than their adult counterparts.
Statistics showed that 25 per cent of those in the 15 to 24 age group were enrolled in educational institutions.

“It appears that educational achievement in Guyana has a pyramidal structure, with less than 10 per cent of the population having completed any degree higher than secondary. The finding has two implications: On the one hand, it entails a shortage of highly qualified human resources in the labour market, while on the other, it indirectly confirms the seriousness of the issue of out-migration of tertiary-educated people, which may explain the relatively low educational profile and skills portfolio of the economically active population,” the report indicated.

As Guyana moves to record its labour force quarterly, IDB Representative to Guyana, Sophie Makonnen, explained that the LFS is important to productivity and preventing Guyana from falling into a skills gap.

“In other words, such an assessment should indicate where Guyana’s workforce stands and enable policymakers to plan accordingly,” said Makonnen.
Finance Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Hector Butts, said the LFS bulletin is critical and will aid in the objective of decision-making.

“It can serve two major purposes, first at the level of managing microeconomic planning to determine the impact of labour in the generation of wealth in Guyana, [and] at the career planning level to permit youths and others to affect career planning against the background of projected needs for skills,” said Butts.

The finance secretary implored stakeholders to utilise the data to enhance their strategic planning.